Voltaic cells human body

This type of cell essentially operates like a simple battery, with many diverse applications, and it is anticipated that such voltaic cells could be charged by the human body to provide a future power source for implanted medical devices such as heart pacemakers. 

It would be very desirable to develop a permanent battery to run pacemakers. Some scientists began working on ways of converting the human body itself into a battery (voltaic cell) to power artificial pacemakers. 

Several methods for using the human body as a voltaic cell have been suggested. One of these is to insert platinum and zinc electrodes into the human body as diagrammed in the figure below. The pacemaker and the electrodes would be worn internally. This "body battery" could easily generate the small amount of current (5 X 10 ampere) that is required by most pacemakers. This "body battery" has been tested on animals for periods exceeding four months without noticeable problems. 

Technology has made modern batteries smaller, safer, and more dependable than our crudely constructed copper-zinc voltaic cell. In fact, the silver cell (Figure 9.11) is sufficiently safe and nontoxic that it can be implanted in the human body as a part of a pacemaker circuit that is used to improve heart rhythm. A rather futuristic potential application of voltaic cells is noted in A Medical Perspective Turning the Human Body into a Battery on page 261. 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ ]

See also in sourсe #XX -- [ ]

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